Short trips damage to engine

This says it better than I have been able to explain to people for years.


Explains this, that I recently found in a customer's 2010 F150

I'm not sure if it's a valid position, but this is what worries me a bit about hybrids. Does the engine really warm up all the time?

this is part of one of the many reasons i say i dislike autostop/auto start (or whatever). Restarting your engine every couple minutes has to be detrimental for an engine, it really does just seem counterproductive not to mention definitely annoying… (also questionable if it actually saves more fuel but I’m not here to start that debate)

& for those of us that live inner city , i guess we are just screwed . . . short trips considered 10 miles or 15 minutes?! Ha ha, 10 miles will damn near put me in a whole different area code. When everything you *NEED is within a one mile radius, even combining errands doesn’t get you up to operating temp when it’s colder nor is it always practical neither.

But seriously, i still like to go “sunday cruising” , so every Sunday or every other Sunday i take one or the other truck out for a ride in the morning, grab a little petrol and put some actual miles on them.

Fless said:

I'm not sure if it's a valid position, but this is what worries me a bit about hybrids. Does the engine really warm up all the time?

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You are one fart smeller. I had not thought about that. Hmmmmm......

PPV_2018 said:

this is part of one of the many reasons i say i dislike autostop/auto start (or whatever). Restarting your engine every couple minutes has to be detrimental for an engine, it really does just seem counterproductive not to mention definitely annoying… (also questionable if it actually saves more fuel but I’m not here to start that debate)

But seriously, i still like to go “sunday cruising” , so every Sunday or every other Sunday i take one or the other truck out for a ride in the morning, grab a little petrol and put some actual miles on them.

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And I'm all in on this. I go out of my way to get the engine warmed up, if needed.

Although I agree with the bill of the message, I am not sure I agree with the timeframes. But that logic my 15 miles drive is more damage than good. And I know that is full of it. The coolant is up to temp in under 5 miles, and even on a 0 degrees day by 7 miles. So there is no way all the metal moving parts inside the engine are not also ( I understand not hot enough long enough to burn out moisture yet). But that last 7 miles seems to do the trick as I have been making this drive for 20 years and my 260+mile Tahoe is no worse after 40k nor many of the other vehicles I have had over the years.


And unless your vehicle starts really hard I can't see it taking more than about 5 min to have the battery topped back off.

My dad lived 5 miles from his little town. With a round trip of 10 and put hundreds of thousands of miles not changing the oil early and being a mechanic never saw signs of detriment.

In NYC, sometimes I have to make very short trips. When I do, I always try to make them longer,
either by driving like a wuss, or coming up with a weird route, just to give the engine a chance to warm up.
If I get on the highway right after starting up, it can take 12min to reach operating temp if it's under 0°C.
(Luckily I have some heat in 4min.)

Do the errand furthest away first. (Consider covering the bottom 20% of the radiator with a piece of cardboard?)

OR VietVet said:

You are one fart smeller. I had not thought about that. Hmmmmm......

Click to expand...

Wife drives a hybrid and we have about 150k on it and has had zero issues. I think designing a vehicle ground up to be a hybrid is maybe different than just slapping a system onto a gas vehicle?
Not sure but I will swear by our hybrid and wife has already told me she refuses to not drive a hybrid going forward. Can’t argue with her and the maintenance is amazing. First set of brakes at 135k miles…

My motor gets warmed up pretty fast, but it is probably related to how I drive.

I owned a BMW diesel for several years and instead of a coolant temperature gauge, it had an oil temperature gauge. It would take easily 15-20 miles of driving on a cold day to get that oil up to normal operating temperature - even though the heater would be warm after only a couple of miles. The oil temperature is the key. It has to get warm enough for the moisture, volatile organics and acids to be removed.